Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Can Books Lead Us To The Truth?



I have always believed that books can cure our nation of things that hold us back – ignorance, fear, anger and incompetence.  I am still hopeful that books can make America great again, but it’ll depend on several factors, including these:

1.      Having terrific books that inform, inspire, enlighten and entertain us.  Words can impact our thoughts, actions, abilities and feelings.

2.      Sharing those books with the vast majority. If they don’t get purchased, borrowed, or given as gifts they’ll go unread and ignored. If a book isn’t read, was it ever written?

3.      Readers must take action after being exposed to the facts of life.  What good is knowing something if you do nothing about it or don’t share it with those who could do something useful?

The challenges are plenty:

1.      How many great books are actually written and published? Do readers even know they exist?  
      Authors need to do a better job in promoting their works.

2.      How many mediocre or crappy books are out there, fooling readers or wasting their time and resources?

3.      Will readers understand the great books and will they recognize how good these works really are?

4.      Will readers have the knowledge or experience to dismiss the books that spew nonsense or take the wrong side on a critical issue?

5.      Do readers stop learning and growing once they think they learned what they need to know?  
      Sometimes we burn out and think we’ve seen and heard it all, but we haven’t.  New ideas, new discoveries, and new facts are created or found every day, and we must keep up with them.

A circle of friends that I tend to email about sports, politics, and issues of the day found us arguing about the presidential candidates and where we stood on issues like guns, wealth, taxes, military, etc.  Someone noted that I refuse to change my positions. He’s known me at least a decade.  He was right.  At first I got defensive and said I see no reason to change. For in the absence of a better idea, I default to my own beliefs.  I challenged him to show me where he’s changed his views.  He couldn’t point to anything.  But I didn’t like that he was correct, that I’ve become entrenched in my views and stubborn. I used to question everything, including my own values.  I was concerned with uncovering what was right, not to just defend being right.  I really welcome new ideas and want to find a way to contribute to making this a better world.

My hope is that through books we can get there.  We must expose ourselves to different voices and no matter how convinced we are that we know better, we all have to be ready and willing to change, especially in light of new ideas, new times, and new challenges.  Hopefully, we can all agree on that.


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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016

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